Adelaide stars fire in impressive win over Eagles in SANFL battle

ADELAIDE’S big names were on song as the Crows showed off their class with a highly impressive win over Woodville-West Torrens.

Adelaide's Hugh Greenwood and Eagles' Jared Petrenko compete for the ball at Woodville Oval. Picture: Tom Huntley

ADELAIDE showed off its potential when it has a bucket load of AFL players, and quality at that, with an impressive 23-point victory over Woodville-West Torrens at Woodville Oval on Saturday.

The Crows had elite trio Hugh Greenwood, Patrick Wilson and Bryce Gibbs start on the ball and they created havoc with their class and skills against an Eagles outfit missing a raft of key players due to injury.

Not that Eagles coach Sam Lonergan wanted excuses, noting injuries have also impacted on the Crows line-up.

The Crows ran amok in the third quarter to bag seven goals and blow the game apart, before nailing the opening two goals of the final term to escape to a 42-point advantage.

“I knew with our depth of midfield if we had no injuries we would be a strong team,” Crows coach Heath Younie said. “Does it always result in wins?

“Last week (when lost to Glenelg) we had (Cam) Ellis-Yolmen, (Myles) Poholke and Greenwood. It looks good on paper, but you have got to roll the sleeves up and do the work. They did that very well today and we functioned well as a team.”

The Crows were ominous early, getting quality ball from the contest and rushing forward with precise movement. They had six entries inside 50 before the Eagles had their first visit, and that was the result of a 25m penalty.

With Jared Petrenko busy on the ball and small forward James Rowe having an impact, the Eagles were able to claw back into the contest and grab a skinny half-time lead.

Then the Crows guns fired back up. Hungry for the confrontation, they rebounded with fluency to have the opposition defence constantly under the pump.

“I watched both games the Crows have played this season and that was their best performance,” Eagles coach Sam Lonergan said. “Maybe they clicked, or the pressure we applied was not good quite good enough for league football.

“I’m definitely disappointed with the effort, no doubt about that. They just performed better and were stronger, and won some critical moments.”

SCOREBOARD

ADELAIDE 3.6 5.7 12.13 14.16 (100)

EAGLES 3.3 6.7 7.11 10.17 (77)

BEST - Adelaide: Wilson, Greenwood, Wright, Fogarty, Latchford, Gibbs, Himmelberg. Eagles: Foote, Rowe, Petrenko, von Bertouch.

GOALS - Adelaide: Wright 3, Greenwood, Stengle, Himmelberg 2, Gallucci, Davis, Strachan, Boyle, Ryan. Eagles: Rowe 5, von Bertouch 2, Boyd, J. Hayes, Lewis.

INJURIES - Eagles: Westbrook (ankle).

UMPIRES - Hundertmark, Burke, Philp.

CROWD - 1847 at Maughan Thiem Kia Oval, Woodville.